New Technology For Dekalb County Sheriff's Office (WAAY-AL)

New Technology For Dekalb County Sheriff's Office
By: Ross Sather

Last Update: 6/23/11 5:32 pm

Dekalb County - One Valley law enforcement agency has a new tool in the fight against illegal immigration. The Dekalb County Sheriff's Office is the latest of 30 jurisdictions all across the state to join the secure communities program. The program helps immigration and customs enforcement identify illegal aliens in state prisons and local jails.

Before the new bio-metric finger print system, it could take several days to determine if a dekalb county inmate was a legal citizen, but not any more. Sheriff Jimmy Harris says one scan of the finger tells all about its owner. “When you are finger printed through our system they automatically goes to the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, that checks for warrants in the United States, but now it goes to a home land security office in Chicago. It tells you if that person is illegal, if they have been arrested, if they've been deported, if they've been charge with a felony. It's not discriminating against anybody, it's fingerprinting everybody that walks through the door like we've always been doing.”

The new biometric scanner system has been in the works for nearly a year. Deputies wasted little time trying out their new technology on an inmate they already knew was illegal. “We brought him up, tested him, within thirty minutes we got a call back, ‘the guy you just printed, whatever his name was he's illegal, we're placing a detainer on him.’ We let them know we already have, we're just testing the system, well, ok it works.”